Villa La Mauresque
Panoramic view of cap Ferrat.
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 Location in France
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| Coordinates | 43°41′15″N 7°19′45″E / 43.6875°N 7.329167°ECoordinates: 43°41′15″N 7°19′45″E / 43.6875°N 7.329167°E |
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| Location | Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Alpes-Maritimes, France |
| Designer | Barry Dierks |
| Type | Villa |
| Completion date | 1927 |
| Main residence of Somerset Maugham | |
The villa La Mauresque is located in cap Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes) and was remodeled in 1927 by the American architect Barry Dierks (1899-1960) to serve as the main residence of the British novelist Somerset Maugham.
Surrounded by gardens and terraces, this villa has received numerous writers and celebrities.
Around 1900, the former missionary and chaplain to Leopold II, King of the Belgians, Félix Charmettant (1844-1921), purchased a parcel of land (4 hectares (9.9 acres)) on the newly subdivided peninsula of cap Ferrat. Here he had a villa constructed in the Moorish style by an unknown architect.
In 1927, the author Somerset Maugham purchased the property and commissioned the young American architect Barry Dierks to eliminate the villa’s original neo-oriental elements, to classicize the façades and patio, and to modernize the layout by creating a staircase. Villa La Mauresque became Maugham’s main residence until his death in 1965.
Becoming a near-obligatory stop for the literary and Riviera society, La Mauresque, from the point of Maugham’s acquisition, received most of the celebrities who visited the Riviera: Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lord Beaverbrook and the Aga Khan mingled with such literary figures as T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Ian Fleming, Noël Coward and even Virginia Woolf.
Maugham and his partner Gerald Haxton – who was followed by other partners after Haxton’s death in 1944 – received as well numerous artists and men from the gay community. Maugham’s last partner, Allan Searle, inherited the Maugham’s estate and the villa.
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Wikipedia